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Translation, Subjectivity, and Culture in France and England, 1600-1800

This study examines the work of British and French translators in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. While vernacular translations had played a significant role in European culture from the Middle Ages onwards, I focus on this period in France and Britain not only because of the importance of the cross-channel dialogue in the development of the European Enlightenment, but also because these translators were intensely aware of one another's practice, leading to an implicit conversation on how and why to translate that accompanies the exchange of literary, philosophical, and scientific ideas. Through close readings of their prefaces and related documents, I examine the way in which translators conceived their projects and presented them to the world. The project speaks to a wide range of issues in the humanities: the relationship of past to present, the evolution of the notion of authorship, the place of women in the literary marketplace, the role of language in the expression of national identity and the ways in which translation mediates our relationships with cultural others.